Dark Rum | 31DOVER.com

Like with golden rums, the colouring of dark rums is due in part to the maturation in wooden barrels. However, dark rums also get their colouring from their higher molasses content.

Dark rums undergo extended contact with the sugar cane by-products to soak up the sweet, heavy character that results in a rich and mellow flavour profile.

The taste of dark rum depends on two things: the barrel(s) in which it is aged and for how the rum spends in the barrel. Bourbon and sherry casks will impart either toasted vanilla and smoke, or sweet and syrupy dried fruit flavours. The longer the rum is aged, the more concentrated the flavour as, due to the tropical heat, almost 10% (“the angel’s share”) of the rum will evaporate year on year.

Dark rum has historically had ties with the Navy and was the sweet, black base used in the the rums served to the Royal Navy where sailors were given daily “rations” rather than drinking the poor-quality on board water. With its higher ABV, dark rums labelled Navy-strength and Gunpowder-proof are today’s tastier equivalent to what British naval officers would have once enjoyed.

Molasses-rich dark rums are sweet, smooth and syrupy with notes of oak, leather, coffee, spice, caramel and vanilla. Excellent partnered with Ginger Beer in a Dark ’n’ Stormy cocktail, served warm for a winter toddy, or sipped neat with or without ice.